Toy swords and other fencing toys are well known in many forms in the prior art. Numerous varieties of toys swords and other bladed battering toys, having soft blades and/or soft blade tips for safety are made and have been made over the years for use predominantly by children while play fencing or pretend battling.
Soft toy “swimming noodles” are also a very common and well-known prior art toy, used primarily in and around water, which are a simple homogenous tubular wand extruded of a resilient and buoyant closed-cell polymer foam, such as polyethylene foam, and which are often used by children for battering each other in pretend battling. The softness of these noodles eliminates the safety threat that they would otherwise pose. Said softness removes any hazard to those diving into the water, and the buoyancy of the foam makes the noodles float on water. The unique appearance of the foam material and the universal use of such noodles by children in and around water have created an instant recognition that promotes use of these noodles for play-battling without fear, as children have learned to instantly recognize that such noodles, and other toys made of the same material, are soft and not dangerous or painful. Children have also come to instantly, yet subconsciously, recognize that such noodles, and other things made of such materials are waterproof and buoyant, and so children have learned that they need not be overly cautious about using toys made of similar materials in and around water. So there is an inherent, yet non-obvious, benefit to leveraging the familiarity that these swimming noodles have developed by using such materials in other unrelated toys that might be used in and around water, to effectively promote their use in and around water.
U.S. Letters Patent application Ser. No. 10/942,326, of which the present application is a continuation-in-part, discloses a squirting toy which leverages the familiarity of the common swimming noodle by incorporating the same materials in a toy intended to be used in and around water.
Additionally, the prior art is filled with missile-shooting toys, such as toy guns, which use compressed air or the movement of a piston to eject and propel a soft foam missile. The use of a soft foam material eliminates the pain and hazard of being struck by such a missile, while the density and formability of components made of such a foam as that used in a swimming noodle allows for the manufacture of missiles that have sufficient flight and trajectory characteristics for play without danger.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved play-fencing sword that may also be used as a missile shooting toy; combining the benefits of play battering, missile-shooting, and water play into one toy in a non-obvious arrangement that not only disguises the intended next move of the combatants, but also subconsciously promotes the use of a shooting toy in and around water when such a type of toy has not previously been associated with water play, by leveraging the popularity and recognition of the swimming noodle.
The shape and configuration of the toy sword of the present invention disguises its missile-shooting capability. The arrangement of the missile-shooting mechanism enables the user to shoot the missile without substantially repositioning his/her hands from the fencing position to catch opponents by surprise. The sword's blade and its separable tip are made of a soft foam material, and the tip serves as the missile which may be instantly fired from the sword.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved play-fencing sword that may also be used as a water-squirting toy; combining the benefits of play battering, water-squirting, and water play into one toy in a non-obvious arrangement that not only disguises the intended next move of the combatants, but also subconsciously promotes the use of a squirting toy in and around water when such a type of toy has not previously been associated with water play, by leveraging the popularity and recognition of the swimming noodle.
The shape and configuration of the toy sword of the present invention disguises its squirting capability. The arrangement of the squirting mechanism enables the user to squirt water without substantially repositioning his/her hands from the fencing position to catch opponents by surprise. The sword's blade includes a hidden nozzle which enables water to be instantly ejected from the sword in a powerful and focused stream.
It is a further object to provide such a toy that is both buoyant and soft for use in and around water, and that the soft and buoyant material used to make several of the components of the toy are readily associated with use in and around water, where play swords and missile-shooting toys are not commonly used due to the incompatibility of most prior art play swords and missile shooters with water, and the inherent dangers of such use in the past.
The present invention subliminally, but non-obviously, simulates certain aspects of the appearance of a familiar “swimming noodle”, so that children will readily recognize that the sword blade and blade tip are soft and will not fear being hit by them, and which promotes its use in and around and its association with water, thereby creating a new marketplace for play swords and missile shooting toys, while providing the additional benefit of water-squirting.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon a review of the following description and drawings of the invention, including the preferred embodiment thereof.